Speaking of Dividends

The Not-So-New Math

Analysts ignore total-return principles

WALL STREET IS A PLACE where irony is often as thick and prevalent as the sell-side analysts who work there," declares Jonathon M. Trugman, managing partner at Pendulum Capital Management, a seven-year-old New York City hedge fund. Writing in Pendulum's latest monthly letter to investors, he complains that, even after the dividend tax cut, these analysts "still don't know how to quantify -- or worse are incapable of calculating or unwilling to focus on -- total-return investment principles in stocks."